Story Of Weight And Measure (1954)

[Music] thank you suppose you wanted to measure the length of a model airplane wing you'd use a ruler of course a ruler marked in inches and if you needed to measure orange juice for a cake you'd use a measuring cup marked in fluid ounces these are measuring tools we use today a ruler and a measuring cup but how did men learn to measure to measure length Men first used parts of their bodies the Egyptians used the length of a man's arm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger the trouble was no two men had arms the same length sooner or later men had to have a measuring stick the Egyptian Cubit stick is roughly the length of a man's forearm it is divided into six pumps a palm is divided into six digits with measuring sticks like this the Egyptians built their great pyramids and temples some of which still stand later the Romans began to use another part of the body for measurement the foot the first foot was the length of just anybody's foot but no two feet were the same length a measuring stick was needed a stick that everybody agreed was a standard foot the length of this bronze rule was decided by the Roman Emperor each dot on the rule is an unsure just about the width of a man's thumb the Roman anchia we get our word inch with these standard measures the Romans were able to build sturdy arches and aqueducts some of which are still used the Roman system of inches and feet spread throughout Europe with the rise of the Roman Empire but then the Roman Empire collapsed and every country set up different standards in England the king and his great Council decreed that three barley corns laid end-to-end shall be one inch in England 12 such inches shall be one foot in some German cities a man measuring a foot had to measure the average size of the left foot of 16 men this was a true and lawful foot everybody seemed to be measuring in different ways here are five different measures that were all used at the same time in Germany this ruler is marked with the names of eight cities because different cities use different lengths standard measures were badly needed not only to measure short lengths but also to measure land areas in early times the size of a piece of ground might be determined by the amount of grain needed to seed it in Germany an acre was a morning's plowing and in England a small piece of land was simply a day's work furrows made convenient measures the first acre was a Furrow long and four Ox rods wide Ox rods were used to Drive Oxen every farmer had one but whose Ox Rod was to be used as a measure standards for measuring area were badly needed the coming of the Industrial Revolution made the need for standards even greater these medieval calipers for instance were not nearly precise enough for Modern Machinery in France in 1790 a group of scientists developed a whole new measuring system the metric system the standard meter like this one is divided into 100 exact and standard centimeters in England and soon in the United States standard lengths were set up this bar is an exact copy of the standard length kept at the Bureau of standards all other rules are constructed from the standard bar so today the same standards of length are used throughout the United States and we know that an inch is an inch but we need other measures besides length how did men learn to measure volume liquids and grain at first again they probably used parts of their bodies a handful of grains a pinch of salt when they looked around for natural cups to measure liquids they found eggshells the shells of sea animals the horns of domestic animals and gourds but then men learned how to make pottery containers which were more practical merchants of the Middle Ages were using standard weights with balance scales liquids could be balanced against known weight for a long time weight was used to measure liquids but this was not very convenient an easier way to measure liquids was to mark off a level on a container and everybody used the same size container one of these containers held just enough wine to balance an eight pound weight on the scale this container was called a gallon from the French word for both one quarter of the old wine gallon is our quart of today and our pint is an eighth of that gallon but the smaller divisions of the court and the Pint are still called ounces reminding us of the time when liquids were measured by weight the merchant who measured grain by balancing it with weights soon learned that equal quantities of the same grain always weighed about the same so it was easier to measure grain in standard containers a bushel of oats always has about the same weight today's standard volume measures are kept in the Bureau of standards standard measures were used to make this cup with standard measures recipes can be followed accurately with just the right amount of milk and flour and orange juice that's the story of an ordinary measuring cup we have seen how the ordinary rulers started out in history as part of a man's body his foot it was a long time until any standard foot was adopted and even longer until the foot and its inches could be used to measure farmland and to make the gears tools and instruments of the modern world today feet and inches are carefully standardized so that we can measure quickly and accurately with a standard ruler we have seen that the measuring cup is a standard measure of volume this cup also has a long history as a part of the body and later as a certain weight still later it was standardized to measure the volume of dry and liquid materials this is part of the story of what men have learned about measuring in nearly 5 000 years we use this knowledge today in our standard measures for length area and volume [Music]